


wildfires

by pleasydeasy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 01:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11197692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasydeasy/pseuds/pleasydeasy
Summary: It starts like this.Luna sits alone in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express when a girl, girl whose hair is made of fire, opens the door and sticks her head in. Her face is full of freckles.«Hi,» she says, sounding nervous but determined. «I’m Ginny Weasley.»Luna blinks and puts down her magazine. «Hi, Ginny Weasley. I’m Luna Lovegood.»





	wildfires

It starts like this. 

Luna sits alone in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express when a girl, girl whose hair is made of fire, opens the door and sticks her head in. Her face is full of freckles. 

«Hi,» she says, sounding nervous but determined. «I’m Ginny Weasley.»

Luna blinks and puts down her magazine. «Hi, Ginny Weasley. I’m Luna Lovegood.»

«I know,» Ginny says. «Is alright if I sit here? Everywhere else is full.» 

«Of course,» Luna says and smiles, because it’s polite to smile, but also because Ginny Weasley is very forward and Luna likes that. 

Ginny grins back and comes into the compartment, flinging herself down on the seats. Luna is fascinated by her hair, bright red and barely reaching her shoulders. 

«Are you nervous?» Ginny says, absentmindedly tapping her fingers against the seat. «I mean, people say it’s usually fine, but it _is_ our first year, so…» She trails off, looking expectantly at Luna. 

«Hm,» Luna says. «I don’t think so. I think I’ll be fine.»

«Good attitude,» Ginny says and grins again. «What are you reading?»

«The Quibbler,» Luna says, smiling proudly. «My father’s the editor.»

«Really? That’s cool.»

They sit in silence for a while, but Luna likes silence, and it doesn’t seem to bother Ginny all that much, so it’s okay. Ginny leans her chin in her hand and looks at the passing view, and Luna reads her magazine. 

«You’ll probably be in Gryffindor,» she says after a while.

"Hm?» Ginny says and looks away from the window. 

«You fit in Gryffindor,» Luna says without blinking. «You’re very brave.»

Ginny’s cheeks color rosy red and she smiles. «Thanks, Luna,» she says. 

«You’re welcome,» Luna says, thinking that rosy red is good color on Ginny. 

 

 

 

 

It starts like this. 

Ginny sits down next to Luna in Transfigurations on their first day in second year, but her smile isn’t quite as bright as it was last year. Her shoulders are a bit lower, and there’s a shadow in her eyes that didn’t use to be there. 

Luna knows why. She’s heard it all from her father. 

Without knowing, Ginny had become possessed by You-Know-Who and opened the Chamber of Secrets. At the end of the year, she had been taken down to the chamber herself, but Luna doesn’t know exactly what happened down there. 

 _Poor Ginny,_ Luna had said when her father told her about it, and her father had nodded solemnly. She smiles at Ginny now, as big as she can, and some of Ginny’s tiredness seems to fall away. Her hair is longer, falling down to her collar, dancing like flames when she bobs her head. Luna wants to touch it, but she’s not sure if Ginny would appreciate that. So she keeps her hands to herself. 

Some of the boys behind her call her Loony when she points out the Whackspurts in the room, but then Ginny turns and glares at them so fiercely their faces match her hair. And Luna feels something flutter in her stomach, all the way through her throat and up to her cheeks. 

Maybe the Whackspurts have gotten to her. 

 

 

 

 

There’s a middle to it, too, but Luna’s not sure where _that_ starts. 

Maybe it’s when she waves at Ginny when they pass each other in the hallways. Maybe it’s when they start meeting in the library to study every Saturday. Maybe it’s when Ginny’s hair reaches her waist, and Luna reaches out and threads her fingers through it, and Ginny closes her eyes and leans into the touch. 

It might be through the letters. Back and forth they write, throughout the long summer. Ginny writes about her brothers and all the stupid things they get up too and how she thinks it’s nice to have many siblings, but it’s a bit lonely when she’s the only girl. 

Luna keeps her updated on the strange creatures she finds around her house, and the trips she sometimes goes on with her father. She writes about her dad when she’s happy, and her mum when she’s sad. And sometimes when she’s happy too, because her mum was a very happy woman, and Luna thinks she would have liked to be present in their memory during times of joy. 

Ginny always ends her letters with _Miss you. Love, Ginny,_ and Luna always lingers a moment too long on those four words. 

 

 

 

 

Being friends with Ginny Weasley, Luna finds, also includes being dragged into a world of impulsive and probably slightly dangerous decisions, many of which are made by Harry Potter. That’s fine by Luna. Her mother always said that life wasn’t worth much if you didn’t dare to live it, and sometimes living means making impulsive and slightly dangerous decisions. 

And besides, she likes Harry. He’s not doing so well when she first meets him, he walks around with anger seething below the surface, just waiting for something to trigger it, but he’s kind. And brave, and a good teacher, and he kind of reminds her of Ginny, actually. So when he decides to go to the Ministry to save Sirius Black, who may or may not be his godfather (no one really takes the time to explain it properly), she trusts he knows what he’s doing. 

(If she’d gotten a chance to save her mother, she would have taken it no matter what dangers it brought.)

But Sirius Black is not at the Ministry. And suddenly they’re alone with more than a dozen Death Eaters, and they’re splitting up and Ginny is yelling «Run, Luna! _Run!»_

She grabs Ginny’s hand, and Ginny grabs Ron’s, and they have no idea where the others are, but they’re flying through strange rooms with curses thrown after them. Luna can’t quite catch her breath, she just holds Ginny’s hand like she’ll never let go and clutches her wand in her other hand. 

Ginny’s hair, not quite so long now, is dancing around her as she throws hexes and jinxes left and right, and when she grows tired, her voice weak and out of breath, Luna steps in front of her and casts protection spells, because she’s good at those. 

They run behind a corner, and Ron pushes them behind him so if any unexpected curses are aimed at them, they’ll hit him first. 

Ginny, of course, pushes back. «Ron, stop, do you honestly think I’m gonna let you-,»

He turns then, eyes alight with adrenalin and fear. «Ginny, _don’t._ Just let me do this.»

Ginny is about to protest again, but Luna pulls at her hand and shakes her head when Ginny turns to look at her. 

«Where are the others?» she whispers, her voice not betraying even a fraction of the bizarre _is-this-real-_ panic that keeps flaring in her chest. «How are we going to find them?»

Ron shakes his head, his mouth tight with worry. They’re all thinking the same thing, she knows that. 

_How are any of us going to make it out alive?_

 

 

 

 

She wakes up, much later, in a hospital bed. Ginny is in the bed next to her, looking tired but otherwise okay, with the exception of her injured leg.

«What happened after-?» Luna says, and Ginny turns to look at her. 

«None of us — I mean, the six of us, were permanently hurt,» she says, but there’s a sad look in her eyes. «Hermione was hit with some sort of purple spell, but she’ll be alright, and Ron will just have a few scars from the brains.»

«But…» Luna says, because she knows there’s more. 

«But…» Ginny says and takes a deep breath. «But Sirius was killed in the battle.»

«Oh, _Harry,»_ Luna says. Ginny looks like she’s blinking away tears. 

«I know,» she says, swallows and looks away, and Luna hasn’t considered the fact that Ginny knew Sirius too. 

She stands up, sways dizzily for a moment, and pads over to Ginny’s bed. Ginny turns to look at her, her brown eyes glossed over with tears, and moves over without a word. Luna lays down beside her and takes her hand. And Ginny squeezes back and rests her head on Luna’s shoulder. 

She wishes there was something she could do to fix this. 

But she can’t. So she presses a kiss to Ginny’s temple with the silent promise that _it will be okay._

 

 

 

 

The end is slow, and subtle. The end starts when Ginny kisses Luna, first on the mouth and then on the cheek and the jaw and the nose and everywhere else she can reach, and Luna smiles so big she feels as if her face might break. 

The end starts with Luna’s whispered « _I love you,»,_ laying in the grass, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, knowing that nothing could possibly be brighter than Ginny’s smile when she says those three words. 

Ginny is made of fire, of wild, unapologetic flames, and Luna loves her so. 

 

 

 

 

The end — the real one — begins with a war. 

It begins with pain, and fear and the sickening feeling of stumbling over a dead body. It begins with believing in something so much, you’re willing to die for it. 

The end is when Ginny grabs Luna’s hand and pulls her into a kiss, a kiss that tastes of fear and anger and _love._ So much love.

The battle rages on around them, but Luna only has eyes for Ginny. She reaches out and brushes a strand of fiery red hair away from her face. 

«I love you,» Ginny says breathlessly. 

«We’ll be alright,» Luna says. There are screams all around them. «We’ll make it.»

Ginny nods, smiles, and lets go of Luna’s hand. 

The last thing Luna sees before she turns around to walk into the battle is the look of hope on Ginny’s face. And then there is a flash of green light and a scream — Ginny’s scream. 

« _No!»_

And then Luna sees no more. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> sorry not sorry. (hope you liked it!)


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